2019 in Review

From January 1, 2019

The theme of 2019 for me was travel. I was lucky enough to travel all over the Pacific Northwest, my home of California, and all over Europe. I did a lot. Here’s a quick summary of it all and what I have learned.

The year started off with lacrosse. I returned to school early and out of shape for fitness camp, which was a fun wake up call. The season was a blast though, even though we had to travel most of it. We traveled all across the Pacific Northwest, from Missoula, Montana to Seattle, Washington, to Boise, Idaho. That might have been the last season I played for the Zags, (The team has gone under due to financial reasons) so I’m glad we ended on a high note.

Despite traveling almost every other weekend, I managed to rush Alpha Kappa Psi Business Fraternity. I learned a great deal professionally and met some incredible people. It was one of the best decisions I’ve made in college. Since I went abroad this semester, I still haven’t had a full semester as a member, and I am looking forward to coming back as one.

Summer was just as busy for me. I started work at the Banana Republic as a Brand Associate, which basically meant I was supposed to stand at the entrance and look pretty and greet everyone coming in. I think I did a pretty good job. I also worked the cash register and standardization for a while. I was great at the register; I was terrible at folding.

I also turned 21 this summer. I’m told that is a big deal. I got to celebrate in Vegas which was a lot of fun with my family and my grandparents. My grandpa taught me how to play poker when I was young so it was pretty awesome to play together in Las Vegas of all places. I lost a lot of the money I made at Banana there.

Early July I quite Banana to start The DISC program at UC Berkeley. I wrote a lot about that experience here. I learned about urban planning, land analysis, and architecture from some incredibly smart experts and met some awesome people from all over the country and world. I actually visited one of the friends I met there later in the year in Barcelona. I also get to say I graduated from UC Berkeley.

I traveled a ton this summer. I was all over the Bay Area with my DISC program, but I also made several trips down to LA, Sacramento, and up to Bodega Bay. I logged a lot of miles in my beautiful truck, ending it with a quick 17 hour trip up to Spokane at the end of the summer. The West Coast has to be the best place in the world to road trip and was one of the things I missed most while abroad

Abroad was the biggest part of my year by far. I’m writing a stand-alone piece for it right now, but I am having trouble with it. It’s hard to capture the experience solely in words. Right now, I will say that it was one of the best times of my life, I miss it dearly, but am happy to be back home. I will link the article here when I have finished it.

It seems cliché’ to say, but 2019 was the best year yet. Here’s to the next decade.